Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory +PDF

This book explores the relationship between custom and Islamic law and seeks to uncover the role of custom in the construction of legal rulings.

The book “Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of Urf and Adah in the Islamic Legal Tradition” was written by Ayman Shabana and published by Palgrave Macmillan.

On a deeper level, however, it deals with the perennial problem of change and continuity in the Islamic legal tradition (or any tradition for that matter). It is argued that custom (urf and adah) was one of the important tools that the jurists used to accommodate change and to adjust the rulings of shari`ah to the ever changing conditions in particular social and historical contexts. The book presents a diachronic study of the development of the concept of custom (and the different terms that have been associated with it) in the Islamic legal tradition.

About the Author:

Ayman Shabana is Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgetown University s School of Foreign Service, Qatar.

Table of Contents

Custom and Islamic Law in Modern Scholarship

Normative Foundations of the Concept of Custom in the Islamic Legal Tradition

From ˓Ādah to ˓Urf Theological Foundations of the Concept of Custom as reflected in the Debate over Causality

Custom between the Theoretical School and the Applied School

The Expansion of Legal Theory

Custom and Legal Maxims

Custom and the Objectives of Sharī˓ah

Custom, Legal Application, and the Construction of Reality

Bibliographic Information

Title: Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of Urf and Adah in the Islamic Legal Tradition

Author: Ayman Shabana

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Language: English

Length: 263 pages

ISBN: 978-0-230-10592-8

Pub. Date: January 19, 2011

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